Emily Wax explores how guerrilla gardeners in Washington D.C. are taking over vacant lots and creating space for neighborhood gardens and vegetable patches, and building community along the way.
This spring, cities like Portland, Detroit, Baltimore and DC are engaging in an emerging urban activist movement -- guerrilla gardening. "This is civil disobedience with a twist: Vegetable patches and sunflower gardens planted on decrepit medians and in derelict lots in an effort to beautify inner-city eyesores or grow healthful food in neighborhoods with limited access to fresh food," writes Wax.
According to Emmy Gran, a teacher at Old City Green, a gardening store in the Shaw neighborhood of D.C., "Guerrilla gardening is urban gardening and food justice." She dates the genesis of guerrilla gardening to the late 1960s, when the Berkeley community turned a disused piece of land near the University of California campus into a public green area. It has since spread worldwide to more than 30 countries and is actively documented on a British-based website.
Although "District police say that guerrilla gardening technically constitutes unlawful entry, a misdemeanor," according Wax, it's operating successfully below police radar in D.C., for now.
FULL STORY: ‘Guerrilla gardeners’ spread seeds of social change
Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?
In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.
Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.
Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service